ITRANS: Proactive ITS Based on Drone Technology to Solve Urban Transportation Challenge

Abstract

Transportation has become the latest field for disrupting innovation, as were telecommunications or computers in the last decades. We are seeing significant advances in the development of autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles and an immense surge of shared mobility services, such as bike-sharing and ride-sourcing services like Uber- all promising to improve the life of the average urban commuter. There are significant obstacles to the deployment and/or full utilization of these technologies, however, which could be mitigated with an additional layer of transportation system monitoring. This chapter introduces the use of unmanned aircraft vehicles (UAV), or drones, as the cornerstone of an advanced and proactive new intelligent transportation system (ITS) called, iTRANS. This new approach will reveal important traffic variables that are currently unpredictable, as well as solve most jurisdictional conflicts of interest, and regulatory constraints. Furthermore, iTRANS is designed to be one of the main tools to complete a successful transition from a dysfunctional transportation system to an optimal linear programming one in which transportation supply and demand is proactively managed through advanced ITS software. This sophisticated ITS system, connected to open software platforms, would gather and integrate all available information from the different modes of transportation, allowing real-time traffic management of the entire transportation system, as a whole. In addition, this chapter addresses the current technologies, urban transportation challenges related to autonomous vehicles, and describes the multifaceted approach of iTRANS and how its application would be advantageous in the deployment of autonomous vehicles. In a nutshell, this provides a systematic approach that 21st century engineers could use to create more eco-friendly, affordable, safe and sustainable transportation environments.